About 25 years ago I found out that a woman I knew was being bashed about by her husband. I'd heard of "black and blue" before. Now I saw it properly. She showed me her bruises in a public lavatory. Another friend was also being beaten by her husband. And two more were being smacked and ordered around. That made four. If I knew four, how many more were there? And this was in a developed, democratic county. Peanuts compared with some other countries and war zones, where brutality towards women is on such a grand scale that even the bravest suffragette wouldn't know where the hell to start.

I still wonder about that woman in the lavatory. Would she have done any better now? Probably not. At least there were refuges able to take her. She wouldn't go, but they were there. So perhaps the best place to start is here, at the bottom, where women are struggling to get off the ground, never mind getting through a glass ceiling. Because things seem to be getting worse.

In this country, abused, battered, raped, tortured and trafficked women seem to be regarded as an expensive nuisance. Charities that help them are having their funding cut, or their work handed over to private companies that profit from women's misery. Refuges are closing down. Battered women must stay with their battering partners, without legal aid to help them get away, and with no homes for them to get away to.

And that's if you're British. Heaven help you if you're not. Trafficked and refugee women are all too often refused asylum. Sod their right to freedom from torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, slavery and servitude – our government is so busy pandering to the anti-asylum brigade that they dare not keep them here. Brute strength and greed seems to be winning. I nearly despair. But perhaps we could at least try to keep all the women here alive, safe and well. For starters.